Yesterday morning, my youngest son and I flew out of Logan Airport in Boston. (My special thanks to God, Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Joseph of Cupertino, and my Guardian Angel for listening to the prayers of this nervous flyer! Both of our flights went off without a hitch.)
I've been to Logan about a gazillion times, but yesterday was the first time I truly noticed the insane degree of homage that is paid there to that staple of New England existence: Dunkin' Donuts coffee. I just love the giant coffee cup inside the door. Lucky for you, my son and I were trying to hustle over to security when I snapped this picture, or you 
would have been subjected to an image of me posing by it, pretending to drink. (It would be like acting out a scene from the greatest dream ever!) The giant coffee cup is neat, but the other picture shows something that really amazed and amused me: right near the airport, there are several huge cement support pillars holding up the highway that are decorated as giant Dunkin' Donuts cups. Now that's some serious advertising.
would have been subjected to an image of me posing by it, pretending to drink. (It would be like acting out a scene from the greatest dream ever!) The giant coffee cup is neat, but the other picture shows something that really amazed and amused me: right near the airport, there are several huge cement support pillars holding up the highway that are decorated as giant Dunkin' Donuts cups. Now that's some serious advertising.
Bostonians--and New Englanders in general--just love their Dunkin' Donuts. It may be the blue collar cousin to the hipper, trendier, more expensive--and in this coffee lover's opinion, nastier-tasting-- Starbucks; but as hilarious comedian Jim Gaffigan mimics (with a killer Boston accent) in one of his routines where he's poking fun at Red Sox-loving, Dunkin' Donuts-swilling New Englanders, "Dunkin' Donuts ROCKS!"
In New England, there is a Dunkin' Donuts store every few blocks. Our town is not all that big, but we have two. Even gas stations that have convenience stores often have small Dunkin' Donuts sections in them. If you crave Dunkin' Donuts coffee, in our neck of the woods you don't have to go very far to find it. And I admit it: I am hooked on Dunkin' Donuts coffee. It's such a nice, mild brew, and I can't handle the really strong stuff that they sell at Starbucks. And if you take yours "regular," like I do, there's so much cream and sugar in it that--as one friend of mine so aptly put it--it tastes almost as if there are doughnuts in there!
I tell you, I just gotta have my Dunkin' Donuts. One Lent, I decided to give up two of my favorite addictions: the T.V. show "Everybody Loves Raymond," which was on constantly in re-runs, and Dunkin' Donuts coffee. One of my sons made fun of me for the Lenten "sacrifices" I had chosen. "Really, Mom? You're not giving up T.V.--you're just giving up ONE show? And you're not giving up coffee--just ONE kind of coffee?" Sheepishly, I tried to explain that this was a very special kind of coffee, not just run-of-the-mill coffee like I brew at home...and having to pass by a Dunkin' Donuts without going to the drive-through window to get my "road coffee" as I ran my errands was going to be an enormous sacrifice for me...and c'mon, did anyone expect me to actually give up coffee altogether for 40 days? (I know, I am a pathetic individual.)
Sometimes I still feel guilty spending over $2.00 on a single large cup of Dunkin' Donuts when for about $8.00, I can buy a can of Maxwell House big enough to keep me in java for a couple of weeks. But some things in life are just worth it, and Dunkin' Donuts coffee is one of them. And if the tributes to Dunkin' Donuts that abound near Logan Airport are any indication, I'm not the only one around here who thinks so!
But here's the kicker: where I am right now, out in the Midwest, THEY DO NOT HAVE DUNKIN' DONUTS! It's not Lent, is it?
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